Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Rudy Giuliani

Mideast's Worst Nightmare?

So says Linda S. Heard in what Jack M labels "The Most Compelling Case for electing Giuliani I've ever seen." One commenter wonders if Heard is actively trying to win Giuliani the nomination. I sure like what I see:

Giuliani makes no bones about the fact he would use military force to set-back Iran's nuclear programme. In September, he promised to use America's military might to prevent Iran pursuing its nuclear ambitions should he be elected president.

His senior foreign policy adviser Norman Podhoretz has spelled out this message, advising that Iran be bombed with cruise missiles and bunker busters. "None of the alternatives to military action - negotiations, sanctions, provoking an internal insurrection - can possibly work," he told The Daily Telegraph.

Giuliani is talking tough when it comes to Pakistan, too. He recently urged the president to be more aggressive in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden within Pakistan even if such a move would result in alienating the Pakistani government.

On Iraq, Giuliani has been consistently gung ho. He supported the war from the outset, backed the so-called surge and believes American troops should stay in Iraq for the foreseeable future.

She laments that Giuliani rejected $10 million from that big mouthed Saudi prince and banned Yasser Arafat from attending events held in New York to celebrate the UN's 50th anniversary. "We can only stand by helplessly as the American people decide their fate and ours," she frets, hoping we Americans make the right choice this time.

As do I.

The Liberal elite and Leftish foreign media people like Heard are a huge obstacle in the long struggle we face against Islamo-Fascism, Updating something I said previously, the longer liberalism predominates our political culture, the less likely it is we will defeat our Islamo-Fascist enemies. As such, the willingness to effectively combat prevailing liberal orthodoxy among our political and media elite is a trait a President must possess. A President who can't or won't do this cannot effectively prosecute the war or secure our borders, which are the most important issues for me.

John Podhoretz summarizes why the articulate Giuliani appears to be best at this among the Republican contenders:

But more than any other candidate in the race, Rudy Giuliani is a liberal-slayer. When he rejects liberal orthodoxy, which he does often, he doesn't just oppose it. He goes to war with it - total, unconditional war.

He spent his political career chewing up liberal orthodoxy and spitting it out - and I think that somehow, in some way, voters in Oklahoma and Kansas get that about him even without knowing the specifics.

His success in turning New York around wasn't merely a matter of changing policies. He had to sustain those policies when they came under deliberate, systematic and unrelenting assault by the city's liberal elite.

I also, via The Corner, liked this from Giuliani about McCain-Feingold campaign finance law:

The concept made sense to me. Now that I see it play out in a couple of elections, I think it was a mistake. We should get much closer to being able to allow people to -- to realize their rights of free speech in the way in which they get involved in campaigns, make contributions to campaigns. I think these 527s have just -- I think McCain -- the end result of McCain-Feingold is not that the power of money has been lessened in politics. In some ways the power of money has been increased in politics, so I think it had an unintended consequence and we should go back and reform it, take out some of the abuses and probably get closer to recognizing people's rights of free speech. So I think ultimately it hasn't worked, and I do not in any way say that in any way to blame it on Senator McCain. I think he passed it in absolute good faith thinking he was straightening out a problem. I think lots of other people supported it, including me. I think, though, it's like, you know, you say does this balance in running something, running a government or an Army or anything else, sometimes the things you think are going to go right go wrong and you got to go change them. And then sometimes they go – they go right and you stick with them.

A number of bloggers believe that its down to a two man race between Giuliani and Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination. As I'm not yet sold on Giuliani, this is certainly true for me.